Proclaim this among the nations prepare war, arouse the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near, let them come up.
A call goes out to the nations to arm themselves. God Himself issues it. Who is really mustering these armies? Where do they go, and what is the case against them?
The words read like a war recruiter's speech. But the speaker is the One the armies will march against.
In such a strain of solemn irony does God challenge His adversaries to the battle. He calls on them to summon all their forces, and to muster all their strength.
The muster has a destination, given a few verses later: the valley of Jehoshaphat. The name itself tells you what will happen there.
This part of Joel details the last days, when God brings back the captives of Judah and Jerusalem. That time comes before the age of peace and blessing, when the curse is taken away completely. It is the judgment of the nations, needed to vindicate God's rights over His oppressed people… Before their full blessing, God must take up His direct government of them again, in the same place where He gave it up. There He will plead in His power with all the nations that dispute His rights. He will show Himself among His people, and act as One dwelling with them, upholding their rights, because they belong to Him. Israel is His inheritance. The word "Jehoshaphat" means "the judgment, or the sceptre, of Jehovah or Jah." There, in judgment, He pleads with the nations for His people, whom they had scattered, and for His land, which they had divided.
The proclamation follows a long list of wrongs done to Israel in the earlier verses. The summons is the answer to that record.
But the nations, all nations, are to be judged as such in this world in that day. So the passage lists the insults they had done to Israel, and the Lord declares that He will pay them back. He holds to righteous retribution. What they caused Israel to suffer, they must suffer themselves… So the call goes out among the nations: let them muster all their forces and escape their fate if they can.
Verse 9 turns farming tools into weapons — the opposite direction from the world's hope of disarmament. One writer sees in this the collapse of every human plan for improving the world, and then the far greater force that answers the nations' "mighty men."
Before that day comes, the utter failure of charitable and other schemes for improving the world will be plain… They must soon answer the prophet's ironical call to consecrate for war and stir up the mighty men… The call goes up for the Lord's mighty ones to come down there, to meet the world in its might. Those legions of angels are surely in the mind of the Spirit — the ones the Lord Jesus refused for Himself. In that day there will be, so to speak, a pitched battle between the powers of God and the powers of evil. No one can doubt the result.
Another writer notes what the nations must leave behind.
The nations receive a call to prepare for war. They are all to assemble. They are to wake up, leave their peaceful work, and come to the valley of Jehoshaphat.
Who echoes this call on earth? One writer points to the powers behind the coming world alliance.
The dragon (the devil), the beast, and the false prophet form a terrible trinity of evil. Revelation 16:13-14 brings them together in one purpose: war. The present League of Nations, which is a mere shadow, is for peace; the real League of Nations, when it appears, will be for war. The evil spirits that come out of the mouths of these three are deceptive and inflammatory words and teachings. And in forming and spreading them, Antichrist will take the lead.
The nations come armed and confident. The prophecy answers with a sickle and a winepress.
But however great the pride of the men of war, it was, after all, the judgment of God — the sickle of God reaping the earth. His press would be full and His vats would overflow, for the wickedness was great… What multitudes in that day would learn the cost of their contempt for the word of grace! They would learn the cost of their pride too — the pride that raised them up in rebellion against the Lord of hosts. All governmental order, its grandeur and its power, would disappear before the judgment of God.
- Proclamation. God Himself sends the call to arms among the nations. It is irony — a challenge to His enemies, not approval of their war.
- Provocation. The case is retribution: what the nations did to His people and His land, they must receive back on their own heads.
- Place. The muster ends in the valley of Jehoshaphat. The name means the judgment or sceptre of the Lord, so the place announces the verdict.
- Power. His mighty ones answer their mighty men — the legions of angels the Lord once refused for Himself. That battle's outcome is never in doubt.
- Press. Every human scheme for peace fails. Then the sickle and the winepress sweep away all human grandeur before God.
Beat your ploughshares into swords, and your pruning-knives into spears; let the weak say, I am strong.
Joel 3 shows God gathering all nations into the valley of Jehoshaphat. Verse 10 belongs to a call to arms — but who gives the order, and why would God tell the world to beat its farm tools into weapons?
One writer hears the order as God daring His enemies to test their strength against Him.
In solemn irony God challenges His enemies to the battle. He calls on them to summon all their forces, and to muster all their strength.
A plowshare is the blade that cuts the furrow; a pruning hook is the curved knife used on vines. Here both are hammered into weapons. One writer points to the day when the change runs the other way.
Today nations turn their plowshares into swords. Some day they will do the opposite, and change their swords into plowshares. Righteousness and peace will surely kiss each other. Creation's curse and birth pains will end.
So the world does not disarm little by little before the day of the Lord. One writer says the drift runs the other way.
Peace will not come before the day of Jehovah. Instead, the world will see a gathering for war on a scale it has never seen yet. The desire to do great things, impatience of obligations, and lust of conquest and military glory will soon give men such a taste for war that no restraint will be enough to hold them back. Restraint will be harder still, because jealousy of each other will have led them to pile up vast stores for military use.
The same writer traces war past treaties and peace campaigns to its root in man himself.
Meanwhile, every effort of peace movements is at best a pleasant illusion, at worst an unbelieving confidence in man, and always ignorance of God's word... Wars certainly have their roots in the passions and desires of man. To escape the bad fruit, you must first make the tree good.
God tells the weakest man to call himself a warrior. Every human scheme for improving the world must answer the same call — and then a different army comes down.
Before that day comes, the utter failure of charitable and other schemes for improving the world will be plain... They must soon answer the prophet's ironical call: "wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up"... "Bring Your mighty ones down there" to meet the world in its might. For in that day there will be, so to speak, a pitched battle between the powers of God and those of evil. No one can doubt how it ends.
The nations arm and march to a valley. Its name settles the outcome before the fighting starts.
This is the judgment of the nations. That judgment must happen, to vindicate God's rights concerning His oppressed people, and to show the nations what He is in His government of the earth... The word "Jehoshaphat" means "the judgment, or the sceptre, of Jehovah." There, in judgment, He pleads with the nations for His people, whom they had scattered, and for His land, which they had divided.
- Speaker — The order to forge weapons is God's challenge to His enemies. He speaks "in solemn irony," calling them to muster all their strength.
- Reversal — Today nations "turn their plowshares into swords." In that day they will "change their swords into plowshares."
- Reason — Human effort will not bring peace. "Wars have their roots in the passions and desires of man," so the tree must be made good first.
- Mismatch — Both sides answer a summons. Man wakes his mighty men; God brings down His mighty ones, and no one can doubt how it ends.
- Verdict — The armies gather in the valley of Jehoshaphat, "the judgment of Jehovah." There God pleads with the nations for His scattered people and His divided land.